State-run People’s Television Network (PTV) on Tuesday, March 16, said it was investigating the intent behind what it called a “malicious post” on its Twitter account that mistakenly used the hashtag #dutertepalpak.
At 7:24 pm Tuesday, PTV’s Twitter account shared one of its stories with the caption “President Rodrigo R. #dutertepalpak BTS reiterated his order to provide free masks for the public especially to those who cannot buy their own.”
“Palpak” is a Filipino word that describes a person who failed, and the hashtag #dutertepalpak trended on Twitter on Tuesday after Filipinos criticized the President’s pandemic response.
Rappler independently confirmed and took its own screenshot of the #dutertepalpak tweet from PTV’s verified Twitter account.
The story was about President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks on Monday, March 15, about providing free face masks for the public in the face of increasing COVID-19 infections in the country.
The post stayed on for around 40 minutes before it was taken down. PTV issued a statement past 9 pm Tuesday, saying the post had the “wrong hashtag which was never in the original caption.”
“PTV is currently investigating the intent behind the malicious post. Our apologies,” PTV’s statement read.
This was not the first time state media, which run on taxpayers’ money, made social media blunders.
In 2017, the Philippine News Agency used a Dole pineapple logo for a story on the Department of Labor and Employment, and mistakenly published articles that had editor’s notes on them.
A year after, the Presidential Communications Operations Office drew flak after referring to Norway as “Norwegia” and to the late National Security Adviser Roilo Golez as “Rogelio.” – Rappler.com
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.